On the last weekend of October, delegates from FMC member clubs convened for a Special General Meeting in Palmerston North and unanimously voted in favour of the adoption of our new rules.

Anyone who would like to see a copy can get it online on our website. Any member club that would like a hard copy posted to them, please e-mail our Executive Officer.

The SGM was followed by a conference and workshop on recreational assets in the Ruahine Forest. Many thanks again to all those who attended, and especially to our presenters, Rob Brown, Allanah Irvine, Geoff Spearpoint and Janet Wilson.

We are delighted to welcome the clubs and members of the NZ Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association to FMC.

The NZHGPA represents 13 regional Hang Gliding and Paragliding clubs from Auckland to the Southern Lakes with a combined membership of over 1500.

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The Department of Conservation has extended the deadline for submissions on Aoraki / Mount Cook and Westland / Tai Poutini National Park Management Plans to February 4th, 2019.

We encourage all of our members to read both parks' draft management plans and submit on any issues of interest.

Also closing on the same date is the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's consultation on a draft Tourist Strategy.

Jamie Stewart is coordinating FMCs input into formational stages of the new Bay of Plenty CMS. The geographic scope includes the Kaimai/Mamaku range, the Rotorua Lakes area and parts of the Raukumara, Urutawa and Waioeka, great tramping country.

Jamie is interested in hearing from anyone with specific recreational issues in this area. Please contact jamie.stewart@fmc.org.nz

There will be an opportunity for public submissions in the New Year and FMC will be giving clubs and supporters some guidance on what we believe the significant issues to be.

As a result of submissions by Federated Mountain Clubs, Fish & Game and the Walking Access Commission, the Waimea Dam Bill has been amended to include a provision for public access over the new dam and in the reservoir’s catchment.

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An important notice to all those wishing to climb Tapuae-O-Uenuku, or any of the surrounding peaks in the Inland Kaikoura Range: Marlborough Tramping Club has recently introduced an electronic Hodder Huts Access Application.

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FMC’s Patron Arnold Heine has offered a discount book service to FMC members for many years. Once a feature in past issues of the FMC Bulletin, the book listings are now online. Only while stocks last! Most titles are selling for well below Recommended Retail Price. Many are hard to get and some are or are likely to become classics.

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The results have been published in the November issue of Backcountry, make sure you get your copy to see the fantastic winning photographs. This year was our biggest ever for participation, but we want to see even more of our clubs and individual supporters joining in for next year.

If your club hasn't participated yet, (or hasn't for a while) why not have a read of our Wilderlife resource on How to run a photo competition. Its a fun, social activity which many clubs seem to enjoy, and it doesn't have to be difficult to organise. Just read Sally Stockdale's article about the Wakatipu Tramping Club, who decided to enter for the first time last year.

Want to enter our photo competition, but don't think your shots are good enough? We want to help you! FMC has five online introductory photography courses from Hot Pixels to give away. The aim is to inspire those who haven’t entered the FMC competition to improve and develop their photography. Therefore, the competition is only open to FMC individual supporters, and members of a FMC affiliated club who have not had their photos entered in the FMC competition.

To be in to win, just take an issue of Backcountry magazine somewhere interesting, take a photo showing someone reading it, then send the picture to photocomp@fmc.org.nz. The competition closes on the 30th of November. Five winners will be drawn at random, and announced on the 3rd of December. For more information, see the announcement on FMC.org.nz

We are always on the look out for contributors to Wilderlife. If you or your club would like to contribute stories, photos, events, opinions or anything else you can think of to the site, please get in touch!